I'm fairly new to Illustrator, though a long time Photoshop user, and I want to add some vectors I've downloaded from 123freevectors. (I'm on a Mac)

In Photoshop, I had no problem adding new brushes from other sources by just dropping them in Presets > Brushes folder.

I tried doing the same with Illustrator by dropping downloaded vectors to Presets > Symbols. Although they showed up in the library listing, the symbols were not correct. Ditto by dropping them in Presets > Brushes.

How do I load new brushes and symbols, and how do I know which library to put them in when what I've downloaded is just described as vectors with extension of .ai (some are .eps)

Plac3en the file in a document when it is placed in the document drag the art into the symbols panel same for the brushes panel and there you will have a choice of what kinfd of brush ou wish to make, you can also drag ity into the watches pamel to make a pattern fill. Y^ou can save the swattchges, bvrushes nd symbols as libraries for use in the future.